Kickin' It Steph Curry (One) Style

As a Golden State Warriors fan, and obviously a Stephen Curry fan, I was thrilled when I heard he teamed up with Under Armour to create his own line of shoes, The Curry One. My first thought? MUST. HAVE. My second thought? PLEASE release them in kid sizes! I actually really liked some of the shoes they collaborated on together previously (hello UA Anatomix Spawn Warriors Away PE and Blue Splash), but I was disappointed that the smallest size was a men's 7 -- just one size bigger than what I needed.

It wasn't until I checked Foot Locker's site the day before its February 13th release date and saw the kid sizes, WITH a cheaper price point ($89.99 vs. $119.99). All I could say was, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME."

I received it the following week, and to my delight, they fit perfectly with great comfort. 

Once I opened the box, I saw a card with a letter from Curry, giving his thanks for the purchase and a little insight of himself as a person, as well as the shoes. 

A huge reason why I got the Home color way, was, well, the colors. Appropriately so, Home is in Warriors' blue and yellow, representing the team and Dub Nation.

Curry's SC30 logo is found in three different places on each shoe, including the tongue shown here. 

Being the leader that Curry is on and off the court, he designed the tips of the laces to say: MMTB ("Make My Team Better") and LEAD.

Philippians 4:13, "I can do all things from he who strengthens me," is a favorite Bible verse of Curry. Explained in a Q&A session for the shoes, he says, "It’s also my mantra, how I get up for games and why I play the way I do."

Continuing with theme, "I CAN DO ALL THINGS" is on the inside of the tongue.  

The other color way that was released at the same time as Home was Dark Matter. When I first saw these online, I didn't think much of them (partly because all I could think of was the blue and yellow). But when I saw them in person, my mind changed. My actual first reaction? "Those look pretty sick!" (Sick is a slang term I rarely use, so that tells you something!)

The rest of the color ways coming out this year on UnderArmour.com and select shoe retailers, along with yet-to-be-announced low-tops in the summer, are as follows:

02.28 // CANDY REIGN
04.03 // AWAY & UNDERDOG
04.18 // MI30
06.20 // FATHER TO SON

As much as I am a fan, I won't be buying ALL of them (a girl like me does NOT need seven pairs of basketball shoes!). I have to say though, it is kind of tempting to get just one more pair -- maybe Dark Matter, Away, MI30, or Father to Son.

And that's the #CurryOne in the Home color way, with a quick look at Dark Matter. Am I going to rock these at the next home game I'm going to? You betcha. 

Side note: I wasn't aware that Curry was on one of Slam Magazine's April 2015 covers wearing the shoes until I saw it while hunting for the Klay Thompson Sports Illustrated cover. It was just too appropriate to get it. 

Seeing New GRAMMY Winner Sam Smith

First and foremost, I feel like it would only be appropriate to congratulate Sam Smith on his FOUR shiny new GRAMMY awards that he took home this past Sunday. I'm so happy for him and it is so well deserved.

On January 31, Sam Smith came back to the Bay Area for the second leg of his "In a Lonely Hour" tour. I saw him live when he came to Oakland the first time around, and was so happy to see that he was coming back already. As soon as I saw the date announced the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, I KNEW I had to see him again. His voice is absolutely beautiful, and is even better live. Tickets to his show was such a hot commodity (partly thanks to the scalpers out there). Basically, if you didn't get it during the pre-sale, you were pretty much out of luck unless you want to shell out at least 3x the face value price on StubHub. Luckily, I was able to get mine during that pre-sale.

Since it was general admission (which I really, really hate, to be honest, for numerous reasons), one thing was for sure - I needed to get there early in order to actually see his face (I was sitting at the very last row possible last time!). My sister and I got there around 3pm, and there was quite a crowd already, but thankfully, the time didn't go by too slow. And as you can tell, I found myself in a pretty darn good spot on the floor.

For this second leg of the tour, Sam got a tad bit fancier with his stage set. With a voice like his though, you don't really need all the fancy shmancy stuff. All you really want to do is focus on him and his voice. Any big production probably would've taken some of that away, so I'm glad he kept it simple.

Sam sang pretty much all of the songs off of his album, and then some. He stripped down a few of the songs, which I think showed off his vocals perfectly.

Trying to meet him after the show is nearly a guarantee if you're quick enough and know where to go. If he knows he doesn't have time to come out, he lets us fans know via Twitter (as he did when he came to Oakland). And trust me, that was a goal of mine. Luckily, there was a couple of people rushing through the crowd to get out, and I was able to drag us out of there fairly quickly by using them as a guide. When we got to where Sam would come out, the crowd was very small (no more than 10-15 people, I'd say, which of course grew later).

After waiting for what seemed like the longest hour, Sam came out to greet us. It went by kind of quickly and I couldn't get a picture with him, but I'm glad I at least got his autograph. When he first came out, my immediate thought was, "Wow, he is tall." "AND handsome." *Sigh*

I don't know when he's coming back again, but you can bet that I will be there waiting for him, even if it's the dreaded general admission.

Anything for you, Sam.

Beginning a New Chapter

Hello, world! Welcome to the new and improved craftycarmen.

After neglecting my blog for the past 5-6 months, I finally decided that it was time for an upgrade. A refresh. A new start. And sometimes, that's all you really need in order to get motivated again. (I'm totally digging the look and feel of this layout, way more than what I had before.) Life, right?

As you can see up top, I am now at craftycarmen.com. craftycarmen.net will still be alive, and will be directed to here, for a few more months, but it will be dunzo once it expires. (Funny, but true story: I actually wanted craftycarmen.com at the very beginning, but someone bought it no more than a month earlier than I did. Talk about disappointing. Fast forward a year or two, someone contacted me, asking me if I want the domain for thousands of dollars, essentially. Um. No. But I'm glad to see it available again, and here I am!)

When I decided to move away from Wordpress, that also meant deciding whether I want to import my old blog posts here. I realized that it just feels way better to start fresh right now, like clean socks on clean feet. I will, however, most likely bring back some old posts, either as is or revamped, but that's about it.

So bare with me with this bare blog at the moment. There's really not much going on just yet, other than the ABOUT page. But I'm looking forward to filling it up, and seeing you here on a more frequent basis.